Save the last dance : Special Collector’s Edition (DVD)

A crossbreed of your better ‘fish-out-of-water’ dramas (think anything where Mr.Voice starts the trailer with “He was from…” or “She was from the other side…”) and, well, a Destiny’s Child video clip, MTV films’ “Save the Last Dance” is a welcome addition to the usually pretty conventional and pedestrian teen-film market because it yearns to be ‘more’.

Julia Stiles, Sean Patrick Thomas, Bianca Lawson, Terry Kinney

A crossbreed of your better ‘fish-out-of-water’ dramas (think anything where Mr.Voice starts the trailer with “He was from…” or “She was from the other side…”) and, well, a Destiny’s Child video clip, MTV films’ “Save the Last Dance” is a welcome addition to the usually pretty conventional and pedestrian teen-film market because it yearns to be ‘more’.

Sara Johnson (Julia Stiles) is a endowed ballet dancer whose dreams of getting into Julliard are crushed when her mum dies in a car accident – on her way to watch her daughter’s audition, no less. Sara is then forced to forget about her dancing dreams and move in with her father (Terry Kinney) – in a home that’s essentially located ‘in the hood’ – and attend a school that’s as white-free as rye bread.

Soon enough though, Sara soon finds herself a couple of good friends – notably, the talented dancer Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas) – and inherits some funky new dance moves. Just enough to stir interest again in a Julliard audition, hey?

With intense performances and a hardheaded screenplay, “Save the Last Dance” isn’t just a cheery teen drama – it’s a vantage point into a mixed breed relationship, and the obstacles that must be overcome by being involved in one. Nothing’s quite as good as those well choreographed dance sequences though.

Besides the sharp transfer and pulsating audio, the newly re-issued “Save the last Dance” CE has a great batch of goodies on the disc (some which appeared on the earlier release), including an interesting – if not exhaustive – featurette on the making of the movie, a chat with the writer, several deleted scenes, a retrospective doco, a bit on the choreography, and an interesting audio commentary from director Thomas Carter. (Oh, and let’s not forget the ‘plug’ for “Save the Last Dance 2″).

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